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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25626553">Duck Season</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HatesWifi/pseuds/HatesWifi'>HatesWifi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tumblr Prompts [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:41:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,200</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25626553</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HatesWifi/pseuds/HatesWifi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Daminette idea: Mari confesses her feelings to Damian and automatically says no, and immediately regrets it... Mari asks to still be friends and he says of course, trying to figure out how get out this mess so hey can fate, get married, have kids, and an entire zoo of animals</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tumblr Prompts [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1781227</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>263</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Duck Season</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Good morning, class, as I mentioned last week we have a transfer student,” Madame Bustier greets the class, smiling wide as if it weren’t a Monday morning. Damian rolls his eyes, avoiding anyone who looked like they wanted to talk and headed up to the back corner desk, where no one was sitting. </p><p>It didn’t take long for someone to ignore the social cues he’d dropped because there stood a tan, green-eyed girl.</p><p>“You should come sit with me, the class bully sits back here and you don’t want to get mixed up with that,” the harlot says, batting her eyelashes. </p><p>“I’ll take my chances back here,” Damian grumbles back, but once again she doesn’t take the hint.</p><p>“Lila, you’re in my seat,” another, sweeter, voice says. The harlot’s smile falters before she retreats down the stairs to stew in anger in her seat.</p><p>“You’re late,” he reprimands, looking at the apparent ‘class bully’.</p><p>“Welcome to our class, I’m Marinette, the class president,” She smiles, it doesn’t reach her eyes, she’s faking it.</p><p>“So class bully and president? Interesting mix.”</p><p>“Interesting assumption,” Marinette shrugs, pulling out her classwork. He raises an eyebrow and does the same, who does she think she is to talk back to him.</p><p>Needless to say, their relationship didn’t start out the best but it got better.</p><p>“I can’t believe they’re such imbeciles,” Damian breaths out, an almost laugh, Marinette thinks to herself. Damian has been in the class for a week now and absolutely hates and loves the class. He hates how stupid the class, but again loves the class because of how idiotic they are.</p><p>“What’d she say this time?” Marinettes sighs, sliding into her seat. This was becoming a routine almost, she sits down right before the bell rings and usually has enough time to hear Lila’s amazing stories from Damian.</p><p>“It was a classic Jagged Stone story,” Damian sighs.</p><p>“I literally know Jagged, and they know that I know him, but yet, in the beginning, I was ‘too jealous’ and now they won’t even listen to anything I say,” Marinette shrugs.</p><p>“You know Jagged?” Damian asks, raising an eyebrow.</p><p>“That’s not important, they can look up any of the information she says without having a personal contact, now shhh, class is starting,” Marinette says, ending the conversation. She avoids talking about herself, almost as bad as he does. He doesn’t mind it too much because she doesn’t appear to be a threat, but yet again appearances can be deceiving.</p><p>A month into the hell that is his class, he ran into her during one of the many akuma attacks. She had just run into a closet he was running for, he was a bit worried about her because Lila likes to take action during the chaos. He was expecting to see some cliche scene of Lila corning her, but when he opened the door, there stood the Parisian hero.</p><p>“What the actual--” He was cut off by her quickly butting in.</p><p>“Oh my god! You can’t anything, I have to go, but-”</p><p> </p><p>“I understand, go fight,” Damian says, effectively stopping her rambling.</p><p>They had an awkward conversation after her and Chat Noir defeated the akuma, she picked him up and dragged him to a secluded roof away from the public prying eyes, and the numbing idiocy of the class.</p><p>“So another way you knew she was lying is you’re Ladybug,” Damian says as soon as they touch down.</p><p>“I would’ve known it without being Ladybug, seriously a foreign girl comes in announcing that she’s best friends with a hero but she's been in the country like three days tops, it’s pretty obvious,” Ladybug huffs, dropping her transformation. “Why’d you follow me into the closet?”</p><p>“Ehh Lila likes to come up with lies during the chaos, so if you had an alibi I thought it would be helpful,” Damian shrugs.</p><p>“Aww, you care about my well being,” Marinette coos, nudging him.</p><p>“You’re bearable,” Damian mumbles, a hint of warmth spreading across his cheeks, must be the afternoon sun.</p><p>“That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard you say since you transferred,” Marinette points out.</p><p>“That doesn’t matter, now let’s leave,” he says, standing.</p><p>“You really want to go back to class?” Marinette asks, standing as well.</p><p>“No but I don’t want to sit in the sun, so let’s go somewhere else. Are going to get us down?”</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry, I can’t at the moment, but we can climb down the fire escape,” Marinette says, rubbing the back of her neck.</p><p>“That will do,” Damian says, easily moving down the escape. </p><p>“Can we stop by my house real quick I want to grab a sketchbook, if that's ok with you,” She asks, pointing at the bakery that’s just down the street from the school.</p><p>“You live above the bakery?”</p><p>“Yeah, you hungry?”</p><p>“No, I don’t like sweets.”</p><p> </p><p>“Your loss then,” Marinette shrugs, entering the back door. She appears a couple of minutes later, putting cookies in her purse. He raises an eyebrow but doesn’t question it. They walk over to the park and sit under a tree in the shade. He just sits in the shade and lets sounds of the birds singing, the breezing leaves, and the light trickling water take over his sense. It was a bit later when he hears her start humming if it were practically anyone else, he would’ve snapped at her to stop it, but her humming was calming.</p><p>He honestly should’ve seen it before he responded. It was a month after the revelation of her being the Parisian hero. They were walking around the Seine near evening after the defeat of another akuma and another day of drama with the harlot and sheep. Marinette had leave early due to the akuma and he was left to deal with the idiots by himself </p><p>“What’s the matter?” he questions. </p><p>“Oh, sorry, I have a lot on my mind,” Marinette says quietly. He steps in front of her and lifts her chin.</p><p>“What’s on your mind?” She looks up at him, his breath hitches in his throat, her eyes are glistening in the sunset.</p><p>“I… I don’t want things to change, but,” she pauses, taking a deep breath. “I really like you, you’re kind to me, even though you don’t try to show it and-”</p><p>“Enough,” Damian cuts her off, she stands in front of him, vulnerable. She’s trying to distract her self by rolling a rock underneath her foot. “If you don't want things to change, then don't change them.” He responds sternly. </p><p>“Umm, ok, I’m sorry, I’m just going to go home then. Umm! Good night!” She says, swinging her head up quickly, just enough to see her eyes glistening with tears before she turns her back and she rushing home. </p><p>“Why’d I say that?” Damian asks himself he watches her back and she rushes down the sidewalk. He has a strange urge to follow her, to pull her into a hug, and to, strangely enough, apologize for making her cry. “What’s the matter with me?” He sighs and agrees to talk to her tomorrow morning before class, as normal.</p><p>But that wasn’t the case, she slid into her seat just after the bell rung. Not only was that different, she was wearing make up, not enough for a majority of people to notice, but he knows her well, and her smile doesn’t reach her eyes again. He was going to try and talk to her during lunch, but conveniently Agreste calls for her attention as the bell rings before he could get a word out, they’re already out the door.</p><p>He feels weird, he knows he shouldn’t he also doesn’t understand why or what that feeling is. His feelings have been pretty abnormal since he got to know Marinette. When he met her, he hated her, but honestly, he hates everyone he meets so he didn’t expect to end up not hating her in the end. She was different than anyone he had ever met, she was kind, without knowing who he was, her smile was contagious. She beautiful but was humble and wasn’t a harlot like other women who had attempted to his attention.</p><p>“Grayson, I have a problem,” Damian says, sitting down in the library to eat his lunch in peace.</p><p>“What’s up, Birdie, you never call me,” Dick asks.</p><p>“This girl said that she likes me.”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s not the first time, you’ve never had a problem rejecting girls before what’s up?”</p><p>“She’s my acquaintance.”</p><p>“So you like her? What's the problem?”</p><p>“Like her?”</p><p>“Do you have romantic feelings for her?”</p><p>“Explain.”</p><p>“Do you like it when she’s around? Is she apart of your life and it feels like a piece is missing if she’s not there?” </p><p>“But that could be platonic as well.”</p><p>“It could be, but do you ever have urges to hold her hand, if she is crying to wipe away the tears, or to hold her in a hug?” (I had no idea how to write this btw, almost asked for help but imma too awkward)</p><p>“She cried last night and all I wanted to do was hug her and apologize,” Damian sighs.</p><p>“You were going to apologize? She must be special.”</p><p>“She’s fantastic, a literal angel,” Damian sighs, slouching in his chair to look at the ceiling. “She takes care of and loves animals. She so good with kids, even with brats.”</p><p>“Talk to her, I’m sure she’ll understand,” Dick says, there a banging being him. “Sorry, I gotta go, Jason just walked in.” he says before hanging up.</p><p>“Talk to her?” Damian mutters to himself. “Do I have feelings for her?” </p><p>He heads back to class early, hoping to talk to her before class. There was one problem, she didn’t show up for afternoon classes along with Agreste. </p><p>He decides that he’ll take the work and notes to Marinette. He enters through the bakery, they had stopped there a couple of times before to pick up stuff sometimes a sketchbook and sometimes a snack. Sabine and Tom recognized him and let him in. He knocks on the trap door and hears a come in, he pushes it open and sees Agreste and Marinette in their pajamas, playing a video game.</p><p>“Agreste, Marinette,” Damian says, stepping into the room.</p><p>“Damian?” Marinette asks, turning surprisingly pale pretty quickly. </p><p>“I brought your stuff and I wanted to talk to you,” Damian says, rubbing the back of his neck, looking at the ground.</p><p>“Ummm… sure, Adrien can you give us a minute?” Marinette says, standing up from her spinning chair.</p><p>“You hurt her again, I’ll cataclysm you,” Adrien says, opening the trap door before disappearing underneath.</p><p>“Umm first, here’s your stuff and notes,” Damian says, handing her them. “Another thing, I’m going to guess you noticed, but I’m not good with emotions in general.” </p><p>“Yeah, I kinda figured.”</p><p>“It took me a bit, but I talked to my brother today,” Damian pauses, taking a deep breath.</p><p>“Where’s this going? I don’t want to get hurt again,” Marinette says, taking a seat of her chaise.</p><p>“I didn’t realize it before I talked to Grayson, he’s my brother, but I like you. I missed you in class and I don’t ever want to see you cry again. I want to be able to you without it being weird,” Damian says, rubbing the back of his neck, looking anywhere but her.</p><p>“You like me?” Marinette asks, standing up.</p><p>“I hate the fact that I made you cry, I never want to see sadness in your beautiful blue eyes ever again. You’re too good for me, you are an angel,” Damian says, taking a deep breath.</p><p>“I’m just me though,” Marinette says, looking at the ground. Damian steps forward, tipping her chin to look up at him.</p><p>“And you’re perfect,” Damian says, Marinette reaches on her tiptoes and kisses his cheek.</p><p>“And you owe me for playing my heart, I honestly thought you didn’t like me and I had a mini-crisis,” Marinette giggled.</p><p>“Would you like to go adopt a hamster?”</p><p>“That’s perfect if we can her name her Fluffy,” Marinette smiles.</p><p>“We’ll talk about the name,” Damian chuckles.</p><p>“I’m open to a discussion,” Marinette shrugs.</p><p>Bonus:</p><p>“I just had the weirdest conversation,” Dick says, hanging up his phone to look at Jason.</p><p>“What’d ya mean?” Jason asks, plopping down in a chair across from Dick before slouching to put his feet on the desk, taking a bite from his apple with a solid crunch.</p><p>“I think Damian in love,” Dick says, causing Jason to choke on his apple.</p><p>“What the fack did I miss?”</p><p>Bonus Bonus:</p><p>“Remember how Damian was in an emotional dilemma,” Dick asks, entering the dining room.</p><p>“Damian has emotions?” Tim asks, throwing his coffee back like a shot, or maybe it was a straight-up espresso shot, Dick wasn’t really paying attention. </p><p>“Yeah, not the point, not only does he have a girlfriend they have a hamster named Nightingale. Probably so Bruce can’t try and turn her into a bird,” Dick says, muttering the last bit.</p><p>“Hey I wouldn’t adopt Damian’s girlfriend, give me some credit,” Bruce says, taking the phone to look at the picture.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Don’t ask me about the title go ask @thecaptainthunder (from Tumblr) also it is they’re prompt.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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